The invention relates to amphibious vehicles.
Amphibious vehicles have been known for some time and generally comprise a vehicle having two drive systems. The first drive system is for powering the vehicle when on land and may comprise a motor driving wheels or tracks of the vehicle. The second drive system (which may or may not be powered from the same power source as the first drive system) normally comprises a propeller at the rear of the vehicle or, more recently, means for drawing water through a channel in the vehicle and ejecting it to the rear.
Necessarily the propellers provided in the known amphibious vehicles must be small so that they do not interfere with operation of the vehicle when on land and if water is drawn through a vehicle it adds to the mass of the vehicle causing it to ride lower in the water with an increase in drag. As a result the amphibious vehicles known to me, which may quite speedy on land are generally slow and cumbersome when in the water.
An object of the invention is to provide an amphibious vehicle having a drive system which will alleviate or overcome the above noted disadvantage of the known vehicles.
In a first aspect the invention provides an amphibious vehicle having a drive system comprising a driven wheel of the vehicle with which is associated a guide arrangement, the guide arrangement having inlet and outlet means and the wheel being formed such that when the wheel is in water its rotation draws water into the guide arrangement via and inlet means, compresses the water and feeds it to the outlet means.
The drive wheel of the vehicle preferably has the form of an impeller operable to draw water into the guide arrangement and feed it to the outlet means.
The guide arrangement may be formed in two parts, a first part having one or more apertures opening forwardly of the direction of forward movement of the vehicle and forming said inlet means whilst the second part has an aperture opening rearwardly of the direction of forward movement of the vehicle and forming said outlet means.
The two parts are preferably on opposed sides of the wheel.
Said two parts of the guide arrangement are preferably formed with means providing a seal between each part and the rim of the wheel with which the guide arrangement is associated.
Said parts of the guide arrangement may be fixed to the suspension supporting the associated wheel and be carried with that wheel.
Said inlet means of said first part of the guide arrangement may comprise a plurality of apertures each opening in the direction of forward movement of the vehicle.
The jet outlet may also extend upwardly of the vehicle.
The said outlet means may have means for controlling the volume of water issuing therefrom.
In one advantageous form the vehicle has a pair of wheels at the front of the vehicle and a single, driven wheel at the rear of the vehicle with which said guide arrangement is associated.
The front heels of the vehicle may have mud guards associated therewith which when the vehicle is on land lie generally above the wheels and which when the vehicle is in water may be rotated to underlie the vehicle wheels and form skies to ease the forward movement of the vehicle through the water.
The vehicle is further preferably provided with running boards extending rearwardly of the mud guards associated with the front wheels of the vehicle.
Advantageously the second part of said guide arrangement has an outlet coupled to a number of steering jets mounted on the body of the vehicle.
There may be six such steering jets on the body of the vehicle.
The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the invention will become clearer from the following description of an embodiment thereof now made with reference to the accompanying drawings.